Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 17th July: Badgers, weeding, water and guerilla gardening.
Oh dear! It is grumbling all round in the gardening communities, where the water butts have dried up and now resorting to having to use the washing up water and bath water or shower water! Luckily the plants do not mind soft soap; in fact we have started to use a spray of soapy water on some of the dwarf beans that have been affected by blackfly. Never like to use it if there are ladybirds around in numbers as they will usually tackle the job, but sometimes we need other help, and the soft soap spray will do the job.
The only other spray we have had to get out is the bacillus thuringiensis, natural bacteria that targets caterpillars. We only use this on the brassica plants such as kale, cabbages, swede, broccoli and cauliflowers as the cabbage white butterflies are now around in large numbers trying to lay their eggs. As soon as any netting is removed to take a look at the plants, they make their move, dive in, and then have to be driven away before the netting can be replaced. The cold frames always have to be checked as they manage to find their way into them but fail to find their way out again.
Talking about nets and plant protection, we have had several visits recently from what we believe is probably the badger population. We put netting over the carrots mainly to deter carrot fly, however the badgers decided they would care to make short work of our carrots, tore through the netting and ate the whole lot, creating several holes in the ground and generally making a mess. Last year it was our beetroot patch that suffered the same fate but this year we grew less beetroot and managed to get most of it up a couple of weeks ago, so it seems next to beetroot they also like carrots; guessing that these root vegetables are sweet and contain more calories that green vegetables, which is just as well or perhaps the entire garden would be stripped in no time!
Not surprisingly this week has mostly been about keeping things alive. No new plantings will be attempted until the weather breaks, and therefore to keep the seedlings alive that should have been planted by now, we have had to resort to repotting them into larger pots and stock piling them where a close eye can be kept. As soon as the weather does change it will be all hands on deck getting them in the ground, but until then some beds will have to remain empty. We are just about managing to keep what we did plant a couple of weeks ago alive, but they are struggling and not growing perhaps as well as they should be. However, the cauliflower and broccoli seedlings did get pricked out into separate pots, all the compost heaps got turned and we are in full flow of sweet pea picking. We have to make sure all the flowers get picked every time we visit the garden or else they will quickly go to seed and stop producing any more.
The planter outside the Ship in the High Street got a makeover as did the two seafront planters, with a dressing of new compost and plenty of water, hopefully they should be alright. The new orchard at Sandgate Park was looking a little crowded by weeds which will be competing with the trees and herbs for water, so they got removed. Next week we will turn our attention to Fremantle Park and the orchard there.
Last but by no means least, the guerrilla planted verge in Golden Valley is looking quite spectacular thanks to Rita’s watering. The picture below does it little justice, and a local commented that her children like to walk past that way as they go to school and look at the flowers, I would think that is reward enough for us.
What’s next?
- Weed at Golden Valley and Fremantle Park
- Mulch Golden valley planters
- Maybe sow some lettuce, bulb fennel, and Chinese cabbage
- Keep up the watering
This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.
